Hierarchical multiple peeling simulations

Abstract

The phenomenon of the exceptional dry adhesion achieved by some natural biological materials has been widely investigated in recent years. In particular, the analysis of the terminal elements of gecko pads and their specific structure and topology has led to the development of bioinspired synthetic fibrillar adhesives, including mushroom-shaped tips. To model the expected adhesion and detachment behaviour of multiple contacts, only recently the last author has derived a theory of multiple peeling, extending the pioneering energy-based single peeling theory of Kendall, including large deformations and pre-stretching. In this contribution, we study the problem of the adhesion of single and multiple contacts using finite element analysis, with the aim of studying complex peeling geometries. Both non-hierarchical tape-like and hierarchical geometries are considered, and the adhesive properties are compared, showing a marked improvement in the latter case. Results are promising and the numerical approach can be exploited in future attempts to determine optimal configurations and improve the adhesion of artificial bioinspired structures.